Romancing The Wallflower

“Nice work,” Cole Bennett said and put a hand on her elbow to lead her to the apartment door. “You’re like a kindergartner whisperer.” She started to turn but stopped at the sound of David’s voice.

“Stay.”

One word, but the intensity of it rocked her to her core.

She glanced up at Cole, who arched a brow.

“I’ll stay,” she told him.

He nodded. “Someone from Social Services will be here soon. I can let them in. They’ll want to talk to David and the boy.”

“We’ll be ready,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

She turned back and followed David to the couch, quickly cleaning off the coffee table and dumping everything into the trash before lowering herself next to him.

Rhett still clung to him, chubby fingers holding fistfuls of flannel shirt in a death grip. “Where’s Mommy?” he asked in a tiny voice.

“She’s...” David paused and his gaze slammed into hers. The pain in his eyes made her want to wrap her arms around both him and Rhett and make this whole night go away. “She’s safe. Sheriff Bennett is taking care of her.”

Erin wondered exactly how Jenna McCay was being cared for, and she hoped that whatever was happening Jenna was coherent enough to feel horrible about the situation she’d created for her son.

“It was loud,” Rhett said. “Mommy’s friends woke me up. I came out to tell her, but there were so many grown-ups and I couldn’t find her. Then everyone started yelling and I got scared and hid under the sink.”

“That was real smart of you,” David told the boy, his hand smoothing Rhett’s sleep-tousled hair.

After a moment Rhett tipped up his head to look at David. “When is Mommy coming home?”

“I’m not sure, buddy. But I’ll stay with you until she does, okay?”

Rhett chewed on his bottom lip for a few seconds, then nodded. After a knock at the door, Cole let in a gray-haired woman who appeared to be in her midfifties. She wore a plain white button-down shirt and dark pants and looked about as no-nonsense as they came.

The woman spoke to Cole in hushed tones for a few minutes, then they both approached.

“This is Becky Cramer from the county Human Services department,” Cole said.

Becky gave David a small nod, then bent to look at Rhett. “You’ve had quite a night,” she said gently.

“It was loud,” Rhett said, turning in David’s lap but not releasing his shirtfront.

“I’m David McCay.” David offered the woman his hand. “Rhett’s uncle. He’ll stay with me while we sort out things with Jenna.”

Becky shook his hand, then glanced at Erin.

“I’m Rhett’s kindergarten teacher, Erin MacDonald.” She saw a flash of surprise pass over Becky’s sharp features.

Right. How was she supposed to explain why she’d ended up on the couch with David and Rhett, caught up in the middle of family drama that had started long past regular school hours?

“Erin is a friend of mine,” David answered. Becky seemed to have no issue with that response, whereas Erin had trouble keeping her jaw from hitting the floor. Friends with David McCay? In what lifetime?

Men like David didn’t have boring kindergarten teachers as friends. Before he came to Crimson, he’d been a major-league baseball pitcher. He must be used to drop-dead gorgeous women who were exciting and sexy.

Erin knew she was boring. And ordinary. Not at all David’s type. She’d had a boyfriend last year—an accountant at a firm in town. He was quiet, average and exactly her type. Greg had broken up with her to date someone who was better than average, but that didn’t mean Erin could change the person she was on the inside. No matter how much she wanted to try.

David had been her unrequited crush since the moment she’d first seen him. It was a harmless fantasy with no chance of rejection. Never had she expected to get to know him, let alone be part of his life in this kind of personal way.

Her mind drifted to that moment in the car when he’d traced his thumb over her cheekbone. The simple touch had sent shock waves rippling through her and ignited a kind of flash-point desire Erin hadn’t realized she was capable of feeling.

“It’s important the school and the family work together,” Becky said, bringing Erin back to the current conversation with a jolt, “to keep the boy’s life as stable as possible during this time.”

She looked at Rhett, who had fallen asleep in David’s arms. “Let me put him to bed,” she whispered, “while you two finish talking.”

David relaxed his grip, allowing her to lift the boy into her arms. She made sure to take the stuffed dog, too. Rhett remained asleep as she tucked him back into bed, sighing when his head hit the pillow. Erin sat on the mattress for several minutes, rubbing the boy’s back to make sure he didn’t wake again. She couldn’t imagine how scared he must have been earlier, unable to find his mother and with the wild party in full swing.

She made a silent vow. She would keep him safe, no matter how far out of her comfort zone—and tangled up with David McCay—that led her.

* * *

It was almost two in the morning before David let himself into the apartment, exhausted and emotionally drained. Erin had agreed to stay while he went to see Jenna. Cole was keeping her overnight on possession charges but had agreed to drop them if she entered a rehab program.

David had helped his sister get clean once before, and it was a rough road. She swore that tonight’s tumble off the wagon was a onetime occurrence. David wanted to believe her, yet he’d heard so many excuses over the years. All he knew was he had to protect his nephew. There could be no repeats of what Rhett had gone through tonight.

It never should have happened in the first place, and he couldn’t stop blaming himself.

The apartment was quiet when he entered, and he found Erin asleep on the couch, curled on her side as if she didn’t want to take up too much space. It blew his mind that the buttoned-up schoolteacher had so willingly pitched in to help with his hot mess of a life. He understood that Rhett was her student. But David had never encountered a teacher like her.

Hell, he would have paid a lot more attention in school if he’d had someone like Erin MacDonald in his corner.

If possible, she looked more luminously beautiful asleep than she did awake. She was like a damn fairy-tale princess with her creamy skin, straight nose, rosy cheeks and the long, dark hair that fell over her face. It was easier to study her now than when those too-knowing bourbon-colored eyes were staring back at him.

He covered her with a blanket and went to check on Rhett. Unlike Erin, the boy was sprawled across the bed, arms and legs reaching out like a starfish. Jenna claimed she’d meant to have only her new boyfriend and a few of his buddies to the house to watch the Broncos play, but things had gotten out of hand. According to Cole, the boyfriend was serious bad news, having had more than a few run-ins with law enforcement over the years.

How the hell did Jenna manage to attract the biggest scumbags on the planet every time she found a new man? He would have asked her, wanted to rail and shout, but she’d looked so defeated sitting alone in the holding cell. She understood she’d messed up and he knew from experience that heaping on more condemnation would only put her on the defensive.

Fear and guilt had warred in his sister’s pale blue eyes, along with the remnants of a long-ago pain that she could hide from most of the world, but not from him. She’d agreed to check into a treatment program, so finding a place for her would be the first thing on his to-do list after getting Rhett to school in a few hours.

He lowered himself into the recliner next to the couch. Erin had cleaned the messy apartment, another debt of thanks he owed her. David hated owing people anything, had learned the hard way to only depend on himself. Yet he couldn’t help but be grateful for the chance to simply sit and rest for a few minutes.

His eyes drifted shut, although he didn’t intend to fall asleep. The next thing he knew, someone was shaking him awake. He blinked and found himself staring into Erin’s huge brown eyes.

“I have to go,” she whispered. “I need to shower and change before school.”

David blinked and tried to look more with-it than he felt. “What time is it?”

“Almost six in the morning.” She moved away and he had the ridiculous urge to pull her down against him. These past few hours had been the soundest he’d slept in years. Something about having this woman close soothed the demons that waited for him in the dark.

“I’ll give you a ride,” he told her, rising from the chair. His lower back ached, and as he looked around the small apartment, reality came crashing over him like a tidal wave. Today was going to be awful. “I’ll need to wake Rhett and—”

“One of my girlfriends is on her way.” Erin shoved a thick lock of hair behind one ear. “Rhett needs all the sleep he can get. He’s coming to school today, right?”

“Yes,” David answered, mentally listing all the things he had to get done. “He needs a routine now more than ever.”

“How’s your sister?”

“She feels terrible and says she’s committed to straightening out her life once and for all. I need to pick her up this morning and then make arrangements to get her to a treatment facility.”

“So Rhett will be staying with you while she’s in rehab?”

“Yes. Not here. I live in a loft above the brewery.”

“How long is the program?”

He sighed. “A month. Rhett doesn’t know she’ll be gone. I’ll tell him when he wakes up, but she won’t leave until tomorrow afternoon. I want him to spend time with her—to know that she’s okay.”

“It could be traumatic,” Erin said with a nod. “But we’ll get him through.”

He didn’t want to admit how much her words resonated with him. When had he suddenly become afraid of dealing with things on his own? David prided himself on never being dependent on anyone, let alone a woman who’d been a stranger only twelve hours ago.

She worried her bottom lip between her teeth, a nervous habit he’d seen her do several times since they’d left the bar. That moment when he’d caught her staring at his ass felt like a lifetime ago.

He ran a finger across the seam of her lips. “You need to give that lip a break. It’s too pretty to take so much abuse.”

“Oh,” she breathed, pink rushing into her cheeks. He wasn’t sure what had surprised her more—his touch or the fact that he thought her mouth was pretty. Pretty and far too kissable to be good for either of them.

“I appreciate your help,” he said, the words rusty and unfamiliar on his tongue. “I’m going to make sure Rhett has a stable home life, but having a teacher who understands what he’s going through will be important.”

She inclined her head to study him. After everything she’d witnessed and what she’d clearly inferred about the dysfunctional McCay family, it must seem odd for him to suddenly be speaking so formally.

“Of course.” Her brows knit together, causing a small crease to appear on her forehead. He resisted the urge to smooth it away...barely. “I should go. Melody doesn’t live far from here. She’ll be waiting.”

She moved across the small space, and he didn’t say anything until the door to the apartment had almost closed.

“Erin.”

She turned, one hand on the doorknob. “Yes?”

“I’d like to repay you for last night.” The thought of remaining in debt to her—to anyone—chafed his skin like an itch he couldn’t quite reach.

“There’s no need—”

“There is a need.” The need pounding through him to claim her. He tried to convince himself the longing would be quenched if he could do a favor to repay her for—in large part—rescuing him last night. “I could make a donation to your class or host the school’s Christmas party at the bar, free of charge. What do you want?”

She stared at him for several long moments, the air between them growing thick and hot. She cleared her throat and said clearly, “I’d like to have an affair with you.”

Then she was gone, the door clicking shut behind her.

And David was left staring after her, wondering if the whole thing had been some kind of bizarre dream.

Chapter Three

“You asked him to hit the sheets?” Melody let out a hoot of laughter. “Who are you and what have you done with my friend Erin?”

Erin kept her palms pressed tight against her cheeks, willing her face to stop burning. “Oh my gosh,” she repeated for the tenth time since she’d climbed in Melody’s minivan and told her friend how she’d left things with David. “I’m nobody. I’m delusional. He’s going to think I’m crazy. Maybe I am crazy.”

“You’re not crazy.” Melody reached out and gently pulled Erin’s hands away from her face. “But did you ever think of asking him out on a date?”

“Clearly I wasn’t thinking at all.” Erin shook her head. “And of course I didn’t ask him for a date. David McCay would never go out with someone like me.”

“Bargaining for sex seemed like a better idea?”

Erin groaned. “Oh my gosh.”

“Why wouldn’t he go out with you? You’re cute. You’re nice. You have decent teeth.”

“Decent teeth? My best friend thinks one of my top three selling points is decent teeth? This is even worse than I thought.”

Melody laughed softly. “Suzie and I saw the way he looked at you at the bar last night. It was kind of hot.”

“The way he looks at a parking meter is hot. That’s David. He’s not for me. We both know he’s not for me.”

Her friend didn’t deny it, and Erin wasn’t sure whether to feel justified or hurt by the silent validation.

“Then why make your little request?”

Erin thought about how she’d felt with David watching her across the small apartment. The way she’d seemed to come alive when he’d placed his hand on the small of her back. The longing for something more in her life.

“He asked me what I wanted and my mouth formed the words before my brain could catch up. He is what I want. Not forever. Not for real. But the chance to be with him...”

Melody sighed. “Can you imagine?”

For Erin, fantasizing about David was akin to fangirling over a comic book superhero played by some hot Australian actor on the big screen—larger than life. He was so handsome he took her breath away, but was a whole galaxy out of her league.

He’d probably even look darn good in tights. Erin giggled at the thought, and the fact that she had asked him for an affair. What had she been thinking?

“I want to be seen,” she said softly. “I’m tired of being invisible.”

“We see you,” Melody answered. “The kids see you.”

“They see Ms. MacDonald. For a school year. Then we have kindergarten graduation and they move on. They grow up. They aren’t mine.” She took another breath. “It’s the same reason I’m working with Olivia Travers at the community center on the Crimson Kidzone project.”

“You’re comparing starting an after-school program for at-risk kids to sleeping with the town hottie?”

“Yes.” Erin shook her head. “No. I mean, not when you put it like that. But Kidzone will belong to me. I can make a lasting difference in this community.”

“You do that already. That’s what being a good teacher is all about. Elaina loves you.”

“She’s a great kid, but you know that already.” Melody’s daughter, Elaina, was in Erin’s class this year and was the same mix of sweet and spunky as her mother.

“Takes after her dad,” Melody said with a wink. Melody had two young kids and a husband who worked long hours as one of Cole Bennett’s deputies to provide for his family.

She pulled to a stop at the curb in front of Erin’s apartment building. Erin had lived in her apartment in the converted redbrick Victorian since she’d moved back to Crimson after college. All of her furniture was hand-me-downs from her mother. She had white walls and a shower that never got hot enough and it was all...adequate.

“I want to do more, Mel. I want to be more. Average has always been enough for me, but sometimes I want more than an ordinary life.”

“David McCay sure isn’t average.”

Erin smiled. “It was a stupid request, and I’ll have to apologize. Or maybe he’ll pretend it never happened and save us both a lot of embarrassment.”

“Is that what you want?”

“It’s what I should want. I didn’t help him last night because I expected anything in return. Rhett’s a special kid, but it’s clear his life hasn’t been easy. He definitely has some behavioral issues, but we were making progress in class. He was responding to me. I don’t want him to slip through the cracks.”

“Don’t take it back, Erin. How many women like us get a chance with someone who looks like that?”

“Says the woman with a ridiculously handsome husband.”

“I love Grant to distraction, but we’re already a boring married couple. Let me live vicariously through you and your little adventure. I vaguely remember what it was like to be single and playing the field.”

“You and Grant started dating when we were juniors in high school.”

Melody rolled her eyes. “I said vaguely.”

“I need to shower and get ready.” Erin opened the car door, the morning breeze tickling the hair that had come loose from the ponytail she wore almost every day. “It’s going to be a long one. I’m meeting Olivia at the community center after school to finalize the details on the outreach program.”

Melody leaned over the console as Erin hopped out of the car. “At least reassure me that this business with your hottie brewer has nothing to do with the jerk ex-boyfriend.”

“Nothing at all,” Erin confirmed, and shut the door behind her, never revealing that the fingers of her other hand were tightly crossed behind her back.

* * *

Erin parked around the corner from the Crimson Community Center later that afternoon and kept her head down as she moved along the bustling sidewalk. Growing up, Crimson had been nothing more than a sleepy mountain town, always in the shadow of nearby Aspen, which felt to Erin like the more glamorous and showy older sister.

But in recent years, Crimson had come into its own, attracting new residents and an influx of visitors who appreciated the town’s laid-back vibe and the myriad outdoor fun available in the mountains surrounding it.

Now the town was busy most weekends, even though the summer crowds had dispersed and they had a good two months before ski season kicked off.

She’d managed to avoid David at both drop-off and pickup today, although she’d pulled Rhett aside during reading groups after she’d watched the boy purposely knock a bin of markers to the floor, then blame the mess on Elaina Cross, who sat next to him. At first he’d refused to speak or even make eye contact when she’d brought him into the hallway. Eventually he blinked away tears and told her his mommy was going away to a place that would make her better and he had to stay with his uncle David.

Wrapping Rhett in a tight hug, Erin had reassured him that both his mother and his uncle loved him. She’d cautiously brought up the previous night and they’d talked a little about his fears and how important it was for him to feel safe.

While she couldn’t avoid David forever, a little distance might work to Erin’s advantage. A fierce war was raging between her brain, which wanted the whole embarrassing situation to disappear, and the rest of her body, which was singing the “Hallelujah” chorus at the mere thought that David might agree to her outrageous request.

Erin had been with one and a half men in her lifetime. Well, two men to be exact, but she only counted the first as a half because he’d gotten so drunk during their date that he’d fallen asleep kissing her. Talk about a blow to the ego, and her ego hadn’t been much of a force in the first place. But the jerk ex-boyfriend Melody had referred to was the final nail in Erin’s confidence coffin.

She and Greg Dellinger had dated for six months, and their relationship was fine. Fine. That should have been her clue to run away as fast as she could. She’d watched enough rom-coms to know that falling in love was supposed to be better than fine.

It had been Greg who’d broken up with her, blissfully explaining that he’d fallen in love with a woman who was beautiful, sexy and exciting. Tacitly implying that Erin was none of those things. Not a big shock, but it stung.

Maybe she owed Greg a thank-you, though, because it had been while reevaluating her life—halfway through a carton of Chunky Monkey—that Erin decided she wanted more.

Deserved more.

Changing up her love life was a daunting project, so she’d started her be-more-than-ordinary makeover by contacting Olivia Travers. Ever since she was a girl, Erin had wanted to be a teacher—to help kids learn but also give them a chance to discover all their potential and coax it out.

The same way she’d wished for someone in her life to notice her. With Crimson’s ever-expanding population and changing demographics, she was afraid that the neediest kids in the community were getting overlooked. Lost in the shuffle or with families that didn’t want the stigma of coming forward for assistance.

Olivia, who’d founded the community center two years ago, had the best of intentions but funding was often difficult to come by for free programming. Erin had outlined her plan for Crimson Kidzone, scheduled a meeting and pitched her idea, offering to volunteer her time to start the program and also work on grant writing to gain additional support.

Her friends at school had encouraged her, while her mom wondered why she’d want to spend more time with children than she already had to for her job. Maureen MacDonald was a quiet, keep-to-herself type of woman. She loved Erin and had done her best after Erin’s father died of a sudden heart attack when she was in kindergarten. But Maureen dedicated more of her time to her psychology practice than she did to motherhood, and she and Erin had little other than genetics in common. Her mother was content to remain in her introverted bubble and that’s how she’d raised her only daughter.

Erin was stepping out of that bubble, even if the encounter with David made her want to jump right back into it.

Her nerves disappeared as soon as she walked into the community center. Her personal life might be a hot mess, but she knew in her heart that the after-school project would be a success. She wouldn’t settle for anything less.

Olivia was waiting at the reception desk for her, a chubby-cheeked baby cradled in her arms.

“I hope you don’t mind an audience for our meeting,” she said apologetically. “The babysitter called in sick.”

“Any opportunity to get my dose of snuggles.” Erin shifted her backpack so she could reach for baby Molly, who was the most scrumptious five-month-old she’d ever seen.

The little girl was a perfect mix of her mom and dad. She had eyes the same striking green as her mother’s. But instead of Olivia’s dark hair, she was a towheaded baby with wispy blond hair the same color as Logan Travers’s, Molly’s doting daddy. Erin wasn’t part of the Traverses’ wide social circle, but she’d seen the group of friends around town enough to know that Logan, while big and brawny on the outside, was absolute putty in his daughter’s hands.

“You’re a natural with kindergartners and babies,” Olivia said as she transferred her daughter to Erin. Coming from Olivia, who was naturally beautiful and had the gentle spirit to match, Erin was grateful to receive the compliment. “Did you grow up in a big family?”

A little pang of disappointment passed through Erin as she shook her head and pressed a kiss to the baby’s soft forehead. “I’m an only child, but I always thought it would be fun to have a big family. I love babies.”

“You were meant to be a mother.”

The other woman’s words made something go soft and melty in Erin’s heart. She wanted to be a mother, to have someone—or even better, multiple someones—to call her own. The thought of a baby with David McCay’s big blue eyes made her chest flutter.